The University of Louisville Libraries & Archives offer a broad range of special
collections and primary source materials. Most of the libraries within the
system are located on the Belknap Campus, just south of downtown Louisville.
Within Ekstrom Library, which is the principal library for undergraduate and
graduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences, the Granville A. Bunton
African American Collection provides more than four thousand volumes of African
American history and literature. Another distinctive collection, the Robert
Worth Bingham Poetry Room, accommodates more than one thousand volumes of
poetry in English and bilingual editions.

In addition to these circulating collections Ekstrom Library houses the
Department of Special Collections where the internationally recognized
Photographic Archives and the
Rare Books collections share a reading room, exhibition galleries and
staff. The Photographic Archives, with holdings now approaching 1.5 million
images, began in 1962 as one of the first collections of documentary history
photographs in the nation. In addition to significant collections of regional
and historic images, the Photographic Archives holds the papers of Roy Emerson
Stryker, and the landmark Standard Oil of New Jersey Photography Project.
Accessible for research, the images are also available for publishers and
collectors through the department's full service darkroom. Along with
documentary collections, the Photographic Archives has developed a substantial
museum collection of photographic fine prints for study and exhibition in its
gallery.

The Rare Books collections emphasize literature, particularly of the Irish
Literary Renaissance, the history of books and printing, and popular culture,
with dime novels, pulp magazines, and the most extensive public collection of
Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, in the world. In addition to in depth
collections of authors and fine presses, the department's holdings include
literary manuscripts, vintage world war posters, maps, literary broadsides, a
range of materials documenting the cultural life of Louisville, and a
significant collection of rare mathematics and astronomy texts. Adjacent to the
rare books vault, the Richard Morgan Kain gallery provides exhibition space for
rare books and the Mary Jo Fink-Gerhard Herz Room offers a comfortable office
for visiting scholars.

The University Archives and
Records Center, established in 1973, maintains offices and research
space on the top floor of Ekstrom Library. Charged with preserving the legal
and historical record of the institution, the University Archives provides
compliance with state and federal open records laws, manages the retention and
disposal of all university records, and serves as the memory of the institution
with documents dating back to the 1798 charter of Jefferson Seminary,
predecessor of the University of Louisville. In addition the University
Archives collects records documenting regional history, particularly the
history of businesses, including the historic Louisville and Nashville
Railroad, ethnic communities, and social action groups. In collaboration with
the City of Louisville, the University Archives preserves local political
records and also has been chosen as the repository for the papers of a number
of United States representatives and senators, as well as local elected
officials. The University Archives also houses the Oral History Center with
over a thousand interviews of university, local and regional leaders, and
activists.

The Margaret M. Bridwell Art
Library, established in 1957, holds a reputation as an important art
research collection in the region. Named for its first librarian, the Margaret
M. Bridwell Library now holds more than seventy thousand volumes and three
hundred current journals, in fine arts, fiber and ceramic arts, architectural
history, photography, printmaking, interior and graphic design, and art
education. In addition to papers of regional artists and architects, the
Bridwell Art Library also holds a significant collection of rare art books.

A second library devoted to the arts is the
Dwight Anderson Music Library, founded in 1947, now with over sixty-six
thousand volumes, subscriptions to 250 magazines and journals, and an extensive
collection of sound recordings in various formats. Among several notable
special collections the library boasts the archive of the world-renown
Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition with scores, sound recordings, and
promotional materials submitted by premier contemporary composers.

Belknap Campus is also the location of two significant professional school
libraries. The Laura Kersey
Library of Engineering, Physical Science and Technology bears the name
of the first engineering librarian for the University of Louisville Speed
Scientific School. In addition to substantial research holdings in engineering,
chemistry, physics, and mathematics, the library holds a modest collection of
rare engineering texts and materials documenting the history of Speed School.
The library of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law serves as a regional
resource for legal research and holds the extensive archives of United States
Supreme Court justices Louis Dembitz Brandeis and John Marshall Harlan. The
Law Library is also a depository for all records and briefs of the
Supreme Court since 1924.

The Kornhauser Health
Sciences Library within the University's Health Sciences complex sits
at the center of Louisville's medical community. With over 207,000 volumes and
2,460 journal subscriptions, the library provides resources for the
metropolitan area as well as the western half of Kentucky. A History Room,
named for Joan Titley Adams, the library's director from 1961 to 1978, houses
rare books along with major collections of papers and artifacts. They document
the history of the practice of medicine and of the University of Louisville
School of Medicine back to its founding in 1837. The library is named for
professor of anatomy Sidney Isaac Kornhauser.

The following pages provide brief descriptions of only about three hundred of
the thousands of special collections, archives, and rare materials held in the
University of Louisville Libraries and Archives. Selected to give insight into
the depth and range of the primary sources available, the entries are arranged
alphabetically by collection name and include information on scope and format
with a designation of the library, archive or department holding the resource.
Researchers will find complete contact information printed on the final page of
the guide. Although some collections require housing among several different
locations to preserve multiple formats, researchers need contact only one of
the repositories listed. The librarians and archivists are glad to coordinate
access.

Subject and keyword access for these collections and thousands more is provided
through a new searchable database for special collections and primary sources
at the University of Louisville Libraries and Archives available through the
Libraries' web page http://library.louisville.edu.
Alternative access points available through that site include
Minerva, the Libraries' online catalog, and the
Kentucky Virtual Library Kentuckiana Digital Library.

All who work with special collections and archives delight in assisting and
collaborating with researchers, helping teach future generations of scholars,
discovering new resources, and gratefully accepting the generosity of donors.
At the University of Louisville Libraries and Archives we hope this glimpse of
our special collections and primary sources will inspire new ideas for
research, and bring us new opportunities to share the privilege of touching
history.